Thursday, December 1, 2016

Life
can be challenging and I valued having Helena’s mother, “Mama,” as a model of
focus and determination – qualities dear to my heart.

Irene Pleszczynski (neé Waleria Eisinger), a
native of Lwow, Poland and a resident of Santa Barbara since 1948, died on
November 21, three days after her 94th birthday. Surviving the
horrors of World War II, she met her husband Andrew in a DP camp in Bremen,
Germany, where they married on Aug. 1, 1945. The following year they came to
America, settling in St. Louis, Mo., before moving to California and
discovering the town that was to be their paradise. Andrew died in 1998, and
she is survived by their two children, Helena Bowman (Obie) of Cloverdale, Ca.,
and Wladyslaw (Joanna) of Annandale, Va., six grandchildren (Antonia, Risa
(Shawn), Emmet and Tyrone; Feliks (Ljubica) and Benedykt, two great-grandchildren,
Scarlet and Sterling Gregorio, and nieces Marta Glodkowska of Canoga Park and
Anna Bentkowska-Kafel of London. She was wonderful—full of goodness, directness,
wisdom, and spunk. She loved music, bridge, and her friends from thirty plus
years of noon swimming at Los Baños. She loved her adopted country.

In her honor please remember the Santa Barbara
Symphony. On November 25 she was buried next to her husband at Calvary
Cemetery.

Tuesday, November 1, 2016

●Oregon Coast House is on a heavily
wind swept bluff with views both up and down thecoastline.The desire for
corresponding walls of glass led to the use of cedar logbuttresses – which harken back to the
driftwood logs found along the beaches.

●I particularly like the way this
exoskeleton reaches out and grabs ahold of the site.

●Aesthetics are very important to me –
so important that I need them to have purposeful underpinnings.

●I’m not a fan of Buckminster Fuller’s aesthetics,
but I really like his statement: “When I’m
working on a problem I never think about beauty, but when I have finished, if
it is not beautiful, I know I did
something wrong.”

●With economics limiting so much
traditional detail and embellishment I tend to expose a lot of the structural elements.

●Speaking of functional expressions I
have been fascinated by exposed framing for some time and in this case the studs on the interior hypotenuse wall are
exposed, therebecoming a
wall of shelves and niches.

●Looking straight out we see a view
loft above a small piece of covered porch below.

●I seldom use conventional hallways to
access the various rooms of the house.Here the bedrooms can open entirely
onto the main space via a steel framed pocket door of stained Hardibacker panels.

●This is the Johnson House in the Dry
Creek Valley.It’s in a forest setting,
and is elongated east-west to maximize
light and views for each room, and included a program requirement for covered porches.

●To avoid blocking light the covered porches
are placed at the ends of the house and light openings
are incorporated.

●Except for a patch of grass off the
dining terrace and a few other exceptions, only native landscaping is used.This
helps preserve continuity with the larger landscape.

●The cantilevered roofs are made
practical because the primary structure is steel –requested by the owners to protect against widow makers –and steel easily handles theoutreach.

●The exterior is primarily metal (for
fireproofing) and we wanted some contrast to helpidentify the entry.It
is concrete and while one might yell “foul/inconsistent” I reply “Get over it – the contrast is good.”

●Our world is imperfect and
inconsistent (at least by human standards) and there areshortcomings everywhere we look – it’s
just the way it is.In the search for
meaningevery theory, criticism,
and philosophy is incomplete but I tend to like Louis Sullivan’s “Art is doing things right.”

●The interior has an asymmetrical gable
ceiling and a continuous band clerestories alongthe south wall.

●By the way, this house is on today’s
house tour.

●Sonoma Coast House is a whole house
makeover.It sits on the bluff at The
Sea Ranch and had been built with a
number of sloping walls with conventional windows in them.

●They leaked profusely and although we
preserved the sloping walls the new house hasvery
little similarity to the original.

●Working with the sloping walls was in
some ways counter intuitive, yet for me intuitionplayed a significant role in the design process.Intuition often gets a bad rap, but I think
it can be a valuable design tool.

●Integrating an entry onto the sloping
wall was very challenging.By making the
entryelement appear as a
free-standing trellis I seemingly avoided the difficult aesthetic juncture.

●As in all of these projects natural
landscaping helps achieve continuity with the largerlandscape.

●Upon approach one passes beneath a
huge shore pine.From the interior one
looks backout onto the old tree.This braced frame replaces a former shear
wall.

●The interior is quite complicated so a
very limited material pallet was used – in this case all surfaces are Douglas fir – a very warm hued local species.

●I think I know that you should look to
yourself for answers, but do not hesitate to borrow(I don’t consider it stealing) from anyone or anything. I certainly was aware of other architects using log columns, profile
doors, exposed framing and industrial lighting…

●This is Malcolm Wells’ work on the
left.Many people and things have influenced
me,but one of the first nature
oriented architectural philosophies to really catch my attention was Malcolm Wells’ comparison of the
natural to the man-made in “The Absolutely Constant
Incontestably Stable Architectural Value Scale.”Quite a mouthful.In
thissystem performance is rated
based on its positive or negative affect on things like pure air, pure water, wildlife
habitat, and so forth.

●Bill Turnbull’s Zimmerman House is on
the right.Bill had a great architectural sense of the landscape and, I believe, is very much under appreciated.

●In the 1980s all manner of solar
heating and controls were being experimented with.By
the 1990s awareness of environmental issues were beginning to reach thearchitectural profession at large and concern
with style began to include concern for theenvironment.

●As human densities have increased so
have our impacts on the environment – the landscape
– and so have the calls for more rules, codes, and oversights regarding every aspect of construction:water, sewage, materials, structure, …The
best part of so called“green
architecture” for me is that perhaps it will raise general awareness that
MotherEarth is beginning to
squirm a bit – perhaps quite a bit!

●Some say environmental consciousness
has arrived – at least that’s the talk.You wouldthink that we can’t
help but create “green architecture” – practically every product we specify is touted as green or eco-friendly or
sustainable.Everyone claims to be part
ofthe solution, but what
solution?We follow some agency’s guidelines,
perhaps feel goodabout
ourselves, and continue business as usual.

●The continuing problem is that
reductions in impact are soon offset by increases inpopulation.Further regulations just continue a cycle of ever increasing depletion
of resources.This is not sustainability – it’s postponement!

●Here is a U.S. Population graph –
world population graphs are similar. With birth ratesbeing higher than death rates the population obviously increases
continuously.And the greater the number the greater the
increase.

●Any thought of human sustainability has
to be rooted in population stabilization and Ipresume
this means stabilization of the economy and as such is a topic that is taboo
for politicians and just about everyone
else (including you and me) –no one
ever mentions the “P” word. It’s common sense that we can achieve
population stability more easily with
5 billion than 10 billion, more easily with 10 billion than 15 billion – what
sense is there in continuing to
increase our numbers?

●Other than air this is my favorite
resource. Numerous governing agencies regulate andrestrict water usage in the name of “green philosophy” but the
next day these or otheragencies approve
the increase of more housing and/or greater densities

●More people need water so we make do
with less water so we can accommodate morepeople.That may not sound like good news, but you
haven’t heard the really bad news…

●We are all so involved with our own
lives and society that it is difficult to have a good sense of how the total system works and our impact on the rest
of our planet. We require massive supply and refuse systems to keep
our society functioning.According to National Geographic in an average lifetime each
person’s impact (often called the human footprint)
will:

·Use
1.8 million gallons of water

·Burn
31,350 gallons of gasoline

·Use
29,700 pounds of plastic

·Use
43,371 aluminum cans

·Discard
64 tons of garbage to landfills

·Etcetera,
etcetera, etcetera

●I see conserving water as actually
detrimental to the environment because the more weconserve – the more we sacrifice – the more people we can
accommodate to ravage the earth in a
plethora of other ways.It’s not just
water that is the culprit, it’s everything thatbefriends population growth – seemingly good things like clean
energy, disease control,increased
food production, and on and on.

●As resources diminish our options are
reduced and the quality of life is inevitably reduced.Many reductions occur slowly enough that we
don’t necessarily even take notice – perhaps
things like the incremental replacement of the land with development.We
don’t have very compassionate ethics for developing the natural landscape –
mostlots are essentially
placemats for houses and offer the inhabitants little exchange withtheir surroundings.

●Other reductions can occur
catastrophically – like the paving of the LA River or theAmerican Plains Indians’ horrific loss
of land and entire way of life through non-indigenous
hunting and targeted killing to eliminate their food and resource supply, thebuffalo.It is estimated that between 1868 and 1885
the buffalo population dropped from 31
million to 500 and the Native American population in the 19th
century dropped from 1million
to 237 thousand.

●This is not my idea of minimalist
architecture in the future – rather it’s a poignant reminder that while we may think of pure air and water as our most
valuable resources –our freedom and
quality of life are also being eroded away.

●Every year there are added
restrictions…

●So now we’ve some full circle – my
inherent sympathies are with preserving the naturallandscape.I think of us
as a species among species where the golden rule might apply to all life – “Do unto others as you
would have others do unto you.”

●I hope I’ve given you food for thought
and that something from this morning’s presentation
will prove helpful to your own work and practice.Thank you.

Sunday, October 2, 2016

Obie
gave the following presentation at last month’s CRAN (Custom Residential Architects
Network) Symposium.The first half of
the basic text and images is posted here and the second half will be posted
next month.

●I’ve always had a strong affinity for
the natural landscape and as a result have acquired a lot of insight – not the least of which is how little I really know
– nevertheless I hope to pass on
some things I think I know.

●I’ve only got time to barely touch on
a number of topics I feel are important but theprimary intent is to try to be helpful to you so if you
want to ask questions at any time goright
ahead.

●I feel fortunate to have had both the
opportunity, and what I feel is the responsibility, towork in partnership with the natural landscape.

●I don’t necessarily expect you to
think I know the things I think I know - you have tofind your own priorities and your own way – but I have been
paying attention to the world
around me for quite a while now.

●I think you’re going to like this
presentation.

●By way of introduction I think a good
place to start is with people – design is for people, not publications or allegiance to a particular methodology – the
whole purpose ofarchitecture is
to support our way of life.

●The earth is an extraordinary place –
there are more resources, more love, and morewonderful
creations than we can dreams of...

●What’s better than young lovers on top
of Notre Dame Cathedral?

●And there are more wonderful little children
than we can embrace…But all of us are notcreated
equal – or given equal opportunity.

●And this raises the issue ofhow we determine what is fair, right, or
wrong – especiallin a world as
stressed and confused as ours?What does
it all mean?

●As a student and afterwards I long
struggled with the search for meaning – in architectureand in life.Eventually
I came to see that there were so many things beyond my controlthat all I could really determine was
how I respond to life’s actions upon me.

●Another thing that contributes to
meaning for me is that I am grateful to have been born a human rather than one of a myriad of
other creatures and for not having life cut short in my youth – I think this has resulted in a strong personal work
ethic.

●We architects are fortunate to have numerous
sources to consider for guides toarchitectural
meaning as well as a source of inspiration.Our architectural history includes
a tremendous heritage of nature conscious architects – HH Richardson, Sullivan,
Wright, and others.Sullivan more for his proselytizing and
Wright more for his doing.

●This drawing is titled Louis Sullivan Contemplating Coexistence with Nature.Manybuildings
are diminished by age, but many Wright houses only improve, like this,theMillard
House in Pasadena.

●Other poignant sources of meaning and
inspiration are the agricultural structures thatdot the rural landscape.These structures often have more meaning for me than most of their design refined contemporaries.

●I suspect the strong, simple values of
their builders had a lot to do with the strong, simpleforms, and, sometimes, intense sense of belonging of
these straight-forward buildings.

●I’m sure many of the most important
values I bring to my work are the outgrowth ofexperiences
of my youth.

●I grew up in the San Fernando Valley
at a time when it was predominantly agricultural -alfalfa fields, orange and walnut groves – and the Los Angeles
River was a wonderful source of boyhood
experience.I became particularly
interested in reptiles and amphibians.

●As I grew up other interests attracted
my attention: things like girls, football, and cars –I went off to college – and at some point realized that the river’s
wildness had been replaced with a
concrete channel and the land with a desolate suburbanization.

●This trauma created a paradox I have
struggled with ever since – a love of architectureand a need to respect the natural landscape.

●After working a few years in Los
Angeles I decided to leave the city, go out on my own, and have a small scale, lower impact practice in a rural setting.

●This is The Sea Ranch here on the
Sonoma County Coast where I had my first office forover 25 years.It is a
development deeply consciousof trying
to work with and preservethe
natural landscape.

●Although my first project received a lot of recognition it took many years (a decade) before I felt like I had a handle on who I was and what I wanted to do as an architect.I would spend a lot of time at the site, do a site analysis, but it took a lot of experience to meld myfeelings and intuition with cognitive analysis of the project

●Over years I eventually came to see that much of what I cared about – and was good at – had to do with siting buildings in the landscape.I think this was because it was something I truly caredabout.There are a few things I think I know that I would like to share with you so I’m going toincludethem in some projects I’m about to show.

●This
is the Brunsell House which I think of as the first house where I pretty much got
the entire project under control –
not perfect, but without many glaring deficiencies.

●Probably the most significant thing I
can share is the idea – the value – of working with the opportunities of the site – partnering with the
landscape.

● An open, flat site like this with
very little to relate to is probably the most difficult siting challenge there is.By using an earth covered roof the house
repeats the slope of the coastal hills
and with a Zen yin and yang-like solution
the house is not only a part of the meadow,
the meadow is also a part of the house.

●This is a passive solar house in a
coastal meadow with northerly winds being deflected up and over the southerly glazing and sunken deck.

●I obviously wanted to continue the
native landscape onto the roof and this raised a number of concerns like “what about gophers?”

●Over the years I’ve come to believe
that there is real value to the native species of plantsand animals if we are able to retain
continuity – not wall them off from the land that wasonce as much theirs as ours.

●On the left we see the
southerly heat absorbing glass with an exhaust plenum above sounwanted heat can be bled off right at the
source.

●This was the first time I used tree
trunk columns, sloped glazing, and numerous othernature inspired elements.

●Tom & Karin’s Place is set in a
costal forest and seeks to preserve both the forest andthe
“feel” of being in the forest – as opposed to being inside looking out
conventional windows at tree trunks.

●When we were doing the program I told
Karin I understood preserving the forest –
that we would preserve the trees and just
clean up the duff and broken branches – and she said “Why would we do that – they’re part of the forest, too” – Boy,
she really means it!

●To achieve this we made a narrow house
with high walls of glass on opposing sides.

●The feel of the forest extends to the
exterior and like the black finish on the eyepiece ofbinoculars, here the black surround is used to increase the visual
contrast and allow the forest to “read”
right through the house.

●On the one hand this is a pretty
simple box, but it has been pushed considerably – I’malways pushing myself towards a little higher achievement
level.

●One of the things that is accomplished
the use of sloped glass is that it allows the space to push beyond the perceived perimeter wall of the building – and
you experience this much in the way you
might experience a solarium.

●Sometimes I think of design as
searching fora kind of least common
denominator for the key components of the
project – the strongest, simplest, most compelling I can find.The primary
issues I think about are the program, circulation, space/form, and light –
usuallyin relation to the
larger context.

●This is Pins Sur Mer on the Mendocino
coast and I would like to use as an example of being
inclusive versus exclusive.

●Exclusive might be a perfectly complete little jewel box like Philip Johnson’s GlassHouse or Mies’ Farnsworth House.Inclusive might be a more eclectic collection of parts like Richardson’s Glessner House or Charles Moore’s Condominium 1.

●The house is near Point Arena, one of the foggiest places on the coast so I was veryconscious of the need for good natural light.

●About half way through the design the client said she wanted wrap around coveredporches on at least two sides.

●Of course I freaked out but eventually common sense prevailed and to solve the problem pulled the entry deep into the center where we skylit it, opened it up with clerestories to all the surrounding rooms, and thereby more than made up for the light reduced by the covered porches.

●And the (4) log columns became the main structural elements of the house

●This is the living room on the left
and the dining room on the right looking back towardsthe entry.

●By
going with the flow and accepting an inclusive mindset I ended up with a better resultthan I would have had without the
inclusion!

Thursday, September 1, 2016

As a young architecture student at the University of
Southern California I began my life-long search for meaning in life, art, and
architecture, but it wasn’t until after graduation and marriage to Helena that
I realized the only thing I could really control in life was how I responded to
the world’s actions upon me. I am
grateful to have been born a human rather than one of a myriad of earth’s other
creatures and for not having life cut short in my youth. I believe this helped me achieve a greater sense
of self-responsibility as well as an anathema towards making excuses.This was the beginning, but what about a
greater meaning beyond oneself?What
about meaning in the complex worlds of art and architecture?

There is a plethora of writings, analysis, theories, and
criticisms trying to explain art and architecture – Vitruvius, Gideon, Mumford,
Grillo, Read, Rodman, Regionalism, Huxtable , Venturi, Wabi Sabi,….each
insightful in its own right,but none
able to achieve an absolute, indisputably complete synopsis.Each inevitably contains inherent
shortcomings.It seems that we must
accept the premise that meaning depends on values limited by our impermanent human
perceptions and that these are not the values of Mother Nature or the Milky Way
or beyond.Our understanding, methods,
and expressions are not universally constant, change with time and circumstance,
and are further restrained by the limitations of our ability to communicate.

Some works may be marvels of technical, mechanical, or
structural efficiency.Others may
successfully respond to or even anticipate a multitude of social, political or
environmental developments.These are characteristics
that can be understood and attributed meaning fairly easily.Without them the artist/architect will surely
have fallen short, but even though our works may attain a high level of
accomplishment they will probably never escape justified criticism based on
differing points of view.

And then there are those times when it seems to be difficult
to describe the sense of meaning one is experiencing.It may bring a tear to your eye, a lump to
your throat, or cause the hair to tingle on the back of your neck. And what does that mean?I don’t really know, but those are some of
the times when I think back to Louis Sullivan’s profound aphorism that Art is
doing things right.

Monday, August 1, 2016

Using the building form itself to achieve natural cooling
has been an interest of mine since I first discovered Sonoma County hop kilns over
40 years ago.Although many of our
vernacular agricultural buildings have ventilation cupolas or similar hot air
escape features, the hop kiln chimneys were like cupolas on steroids – and were
sometimes built in groups of two, three, or four.Cupolas often have a classic refinement about
them and they harken back many hundreds of years.Whatever the projecting rooftop feature is,
the idea behind it is quite simple:hot
air rises so therefore, let’s take advantage of, and even encourage it (!).

We have two sets of ventilation louvers on our Dry Creek
Valley studio and two sets on our house, both of which were hoisted into place earlier
this week.That’s Dan Zirbes and Brian
Nelson accomplishing the challenge while out of sight Darin Luran is doing the heavy
pulling (white rope) and I am maintaining overall alignment (yellow rope).